Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) recently released its latest round of Economic Outlook Survey. As per the survey, the annual median GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 is estimated at 5.0%.
The survey also revealed that the GDP growth is likely to improve to 5.5% in 2020-21. The median growth forecast for Agriculture and allied activities and the industry are predicted at 2.6% and 3.5% respectively for 2019-20. The services sector is expected to grow at 7.2% during the current year. A median forecast of 4.7% for GDP growth has been estimated for the third quarter of 2019-20.

Notes:
The state government of Punjab recently declared to ban all types of online lottery schemes in the state. The ban of lottery schemes has been made under the Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998.
This step is expected to curb illegal lottery business in the state and to boost the tax and non-tax revenue of the state government. The Cabinet also approved to prohibit the sale of online lotteries, operated through vending machines and online scheme tickets, promoted by other states.

Notes:
After nearly four years of the referendum voted by the British people for Brexit, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union, at 11.00 p.m on January 31, 2020.
After Britain left the bloc, the European Union has 27 more countries. The process by which the member state leaves the Union has expired and UK has entered the transition period, which will remain till December 31, 2020. The UK will continue to obey the EU laws and courts during the transition period. A new 50-pence coin was launched recently to mark the occasion.

Notes:
The Chinese New Year, which is popularly known as the Spring Festival in China recently fell on January 25, 2020. The festival falls on the beginning of Spring and the date of the festival is determined by the Lunar calendar. As per the Chinese astrology, this year marks the year of Rat.
The celebrations of the new year have been postponed, as the country is hit by the deadly ‘Corona virus’. The virus has caused more than 200 deaths in China, so far. With nearly 12000 people of the country are said to be infected, the count increases day by day. Some infections have been noted in other countries as well.

Notes:
A new scheme was proposed in the budget, which is to be implemented by the Aviation Ministry, for transporting agricultural products of farmers. The scheme was named as ‘Krishi Udan Scheme’.
The scheme is to be launched by the ministry on both international and national routes, which will improve the value realisation on the agricultural products of the farmers. The scheme will assist the farmers with more focus on north-east and tribal districts. The UDAN scheme was launched in 2016, to boost regional connectivity at affordable air-fares. The airlines are provided concessions from the centre, state and airport operators.

Notes:
Pramod Agrawal assumed charge as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Ltd, a Maharatna Public Sector Enterprise.
Public Enterprises Selection Board recommended the name of the 1991 batch IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre for the post of Chairman and Managing Director. Prior to this appointment, he was serving as the Principal Secretary for urban development and housing department in Madhya Pradesh. He replaced A K Jha, who retired as the chairman of Coal India Ltd on January 31, 2020.

Notes:
Veteran Indian diplomat Gopal Baglay was recently appointed as the India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. Gopal Baglay, who is currently serving at the Prime Minister’s Office, is expected to assume charge in a short time.
He has succeeded Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who has recently been appointed as the Indian Ambassador to the United States. Gopal Baglay is a 1992-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service and has held several important positions during his career. He has served as the Deputy High Commissioner of India to Pakistan and Spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry.

Notes:
India and Maldives signed 5 agreements for establishing ‘Addu Tourism zone’ in five islands of Addu atoll. An atoll is a ring-shaped chain of islands formed of coral.
The Tourism zone is expected to be set up at a cost of $2.49 million. It aims at generating local employment and boost the eco-tourism opportunities in Addu. The High Commissioner of India Sunjay Sudhir signed the MoUs with the Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid and Addu City Council. Another MoU to establish a bottled water plant in Hoarafushi was also inked.

Notes:
The World Wetlands Day is observed annually on February 2 across the world. On 2 February 1971, the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar. From then, the day has been observed annually on the same date.
The theme of this year’s World Wetlands Day is “Wetlands and Biodiversity”. Recently, 10 more wetlands of India are included in the ‘Ramsar site’ list. With this, India has 37 Ramsar sites totally, which cover more than 1 million hectares of area in the country.

Notes:
World Cancer Day is organized by the Union for International Cancer Control and celebrated every year on February 4, from 2000. This year the theme of the campaign is ‘I am and I will’.
The World Cancer Day campaign was first created in the year 2000, and this year’s is the 20th edition of the day. It is observed to create awareness about the disease across the world and to improve individual and government action. The campaign aims at reducing the number of premature deaths from cancer and noncommunicable diseases by one third by 2030.